Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour presented by NASCAR on FOX - Interview with Joey Logano's Crew Chief, Paul Wolfe | VICTORY LAP

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

Join Kevin Harvick for a special episode of Victory Lap as he sits down with NASCAR Crew Chief Paul Wolfe. Paul offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the strategy, preparation, and mindset that helped guide Joey Logano to victory! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Kevin Harvick's happy hour, presented by NASCAR on Fox. And on today's victory lap, we have Paul Wolf, crew chief for Joey Lugano. And I am really interested to see what his approach is going to be for these next two weeks. Because as a driver, when I would win in the first week of playoffs, I felt like I was on vacation for a couple weeks. So can't wait to ask Paul a few questions and see what his strategy is for the next couple weeks. Well, Paul, thanks for joining us. Congratulations. You definitely, we talk about how stressful this track is to drive

and from the driver's standpoint. But man, the fuel and everything that you guys had to deal with yesterday, was it as tight as it appeared to be or were you just holding your cards close to your chest? Well, it was tight. And I think as we've seen all these speedway races here lately, it's all about the fuel game and being able to manage. that and you know to shorten your time up on pit road as track position. I mean, it just continues to be tough everywhere we go. And I think we saw yesterday, you know, when you had guys leading

the race that were continuing to try to save fuel, it really kept the pack tight. And it was hard to make track position. I think when you saw the guys that were out front running hard, we're able to make track position. So we knew coming down to the end, you know, we were going to need to be aggressive to be able to get some of that track position. And that caution came out there with roughly 80 to go. We kind of run through these scenarios, right? Like at what point are you going to pit even though you're not in your fuel window? And we were able to take the information we had from early in the race,

what Joey was able to do while maintaining track position. and still save some amount of fuel. You kind of calculate all that and understand, right, well, what's our number where we're willing to come top off and say we're going to stay out from here to the end to continue to gain that track position? And we got in a spot where we felt like we were in that window. And we gave Joey kind of the information, you know, based off of, you know, what he was able to do early in the race and told him we needed, we needed that for.

X amount of laps and then we would give him, we'd give him some laps at the end where he could go hard. And he did, he did a great job, actually a little better than we thought. A couple of those cautions there helped and gave us a little bit of cushion for the green, white checkers, as, you know, you kind of got to figure that's going to happen at this style of racing. So this is one of the more intriguing stories that we've followed all year. You know, you guys obviously are still good with your super speedway package. You guys ran up front all day, did everything that you needed to do, put the car in victory lane.

We've seen that at all the speedway races. First half of the year, I thought, man, you guys are dead ducks. You are dead in the water and struggling. And all of a sudden we get to North Wilkesboro. We had Joey on. We heard him talk about the test at North Wilkesboro and everything that kind of turned the short track stuff around. How has this season been for you to kind of work backwards to know that you weren't where you needed to be?

You made your short track stuff up and you knew your Super Speedway stuff was good. How have you balanced the season of preparing what you need to go into the playoffs? And where do you think you're at as far as the mile and a halfs and everything else outside of the speedways? Yeah, no doubt it's been a challenging year for us. And, you know, we rolled out a new body again this year. So early season, you're trying to understand that as it has a different arrow balance and, you know, you need to run it at maybe a different arrow attitude than what your notes have from past races. So you're kind of learning the new body and understanding where that's at and really didn't have the speed we were hoping for.

I mean, we thought with the new Ford body, we would come out of the gates with a little more speed than what. we ended specifically, you know, the mile and a half tracks as you talked about and really still wasn't there. So very concerned with where we were at, what our challenges would be this year. And then you talk about the short track program, which I would say as a whole, since I started working with Joey, that's really been our strength, something we can always fall back on When we are struggling at other places, we know we go to the short tracks and we're going to run in the top five, if not contend for wins. So that kind of, you know, you've always got that. And that continued this year.

And with, you know, limited practice, new arrow package on the short tracks, still had a little work to do. And we really did a nice job as a team taking advantage of those short track tests we got at North Wilkesboro. Obviously, that's unique with the repave and weren't really sure what to expect there, but we're still able to run through a lot of just basic thoughts and ideas of how to make a, you know, put together a good short track, at least a baseline that you can carry to a lot of these places and apply some things. So that obviously was a success for us there, that test. and it really, as a company in the way we're structured, we were able to, as a group, take that information and really go on a strong run for our company with, you know, Austin and Ryan getting wins. Obviously, we didn't get a win there. And I kind of looked at those stretch of races as our opportunity to get into the playoffs as such a slow start we had. I knew it was going to take this short,

track stretch for us to have a shot to win and get into the playoffs. Unfortunately, we came up a little short, obviously strong performances and we're in position to win those, but we weren't able to do it. So that was a little frustrating. Fortunately, strategy came into play at Nashville, and we were able to get that win. So it's been an up and down year. And to your question on the mile and a half. I'd be lying to you if I told you, we got it figured out and we're confident we're going to go to Kansas and be able to run up front and put the points on the board that we need. With that being said, I'm optimistic. I think our strength as a team, obviously, is our experience, you know, the way Joey's able to perform when it comes to playoff time and the guys around me

on this team. We've been there, done that. And it gives us confidence to know that we can get it done. It's by no stretch going to be easy. I do feel like you look at the end of the summer races here, which no real true mile and a half. We went to Indy and in Pocono and Michigan, you know, higher speed tracks. I would say we feel like we've learned a little bit to possibly close the gap. But, you know, we're going to have our work cut out for us. And I think as a company, you know, the 12, the 12 group and my group have done a nice job of working together and trying to maximize what track time we get, which is very limited. So we'll continue to lean on each other as we get ready to approach that next round. And, you know, really for us now, I would say the next two weeks, it's all about, you know, doing everything we can to continue to have.

help the 12 and the two put as many points on the border or win to get more cars through. So how does that change your strategy, though? Because for me, when we would win at the first round, it gave you that sense of relief to where you almost let that stress down for the next couple weeks, but it also changed your focus on what you focused on. Obviously, you want to go to Watkins Glen and try to win and get the best that you can. But knowing that, you know, that you need to go to Kansas and Vegas in the next round and perform, how much does that open you up to have more SIM sessions or do more things with the guys to work through some things

for the mile and a halfs, knowing that you don't have that pressure on you for the next two weeks? Yeah, that'll be big. I mean, we've been in this position before, like you said, as you have as well. And we will, as far as my group goes, will for sure put focus on on Kansas preparing and making sure we're doing everything possible, right, and not missing anything because kind of the way we're structured here.

Like I said, our goal now is to, you know, to help our teammates. So that kind of makes it easy. Like, when I say help our teammates, what's that mean? Well, we get, you know, 20-minute sessions, not a lot of time to try things. but if we can unload with the same setups in the car, which we've had success with a lot this year, especially over the summer when all our cars had speed, we can all start with the basic same setup and then tune from there.

And I think we've got an understanding now of, you know, every driver needs a little different balance or looking for different things to kind of connect the corner the best we can. We kind of know some of those offsets and things that work for Joey and Ryan. And it'll be kind of easy for me to say, all right, well, just let's not focus on Watkins,

then whatever Hassler and the 12 bunch wants to put in the car, you guys just bolt that in ours. And then when we get to Watkins, Glenn, we can try one thing, they can try one thing. And it may not be a lot, but at this point in the game, as close as everything is, one change that gets you a direction, whether it's on a ride height sweep or a real,

rear bar versus no rear bar, something basic, but you wouldn't get to try unless you have multiple cars on the same setup package. So that will help us, help them, and we can focus on Kansas and making sure we're looking over everything we can to be the best when we unload there. Well, it also opens up a little bit of mind in the dad mindset over the next couple weeks. So do we have any big go-kart races or anything planned? that we can catch up on or put a little more effort in now that we've got a couple weeks to work through a little lower stress? Well, that's a good point there. We actually have the Stars Championship race this weekend over at Trackhouse.

So plan to be able to get over there at least on Thursday's practice day and try to help Cade as much as I can. Obviously, as you know, that's a tough balance, especially with my job of trying to be there for them as much as I can. and really, you know, how the level that it takes to to compete, as it is in any sport these days, right? The commitment level is way farther than I thought it would be to run at the top at these national races. And, you know, he's continued to make progress and it's exciting to see. And I always wish I could spend more time than I do, but it kind of is what it is for now. but I try to get over to the racetrack whenever I can with them. Yeah, well, it's good for them to have to fend on their own every once in a while

to kind of explore and figure it out themselves. Well, Paul, we appreciate you taking the time today. You guys have done an absolutely amazing job of getting all that turned around and capitalized when the moments have been right. So good luck throughout the rest of the playoffs, and we'll be watching. You bet. Thanks, Kevin. Thanks for having me on today.